Building Valued Social Roles

Narrated by Beth Mount, this excerpt from our module “Valued Social Roles” explains the importance of helping people to build wide, deep and sustaining relationships.

This module is written by Marc Tumeinski from the Social Role Valorization (SRV) Implementation Project. Marc uses his intimate knowledge of SRV to help learners to reflect on both the barriers to the “Good Things of Life” and how valued social roles may help the people we support to have greater access to these good things.

 

 

This module includes video presentations from Marc Tumeinski, Gary Kent, Beth Mount, Steve Dymond, Jack Pearpoint, and Simon Duffy.

 

On successful completion of this module, learners will be able to:

 

    • Describe related elements of social devaluation: negative perception followed by negative treatment.
    • Describe a shared practice of human service involving vision, attitudes, and skills and actions.
    • Understand and articulate a shared practice for supporting the people you support.
    • Describe the “good things in life” and valued social roles with examples, and also explain how they are linked.
    • Describe devalued roles as wounds, how these occur, and what the consequences of these wounds may be.
    • Understand and articulate skills and attitudes which support our vision including: Stepping into the shoes of the people you support, serving one person at a time, and holding high, positive expectations for the people you support and for ourselves.
    • Describe how rejection, distancing, and communication can be potential barriers to applying this vision.
    • Explain how you can be a better listener.
    • Explain how person-centered planning can help to raise possibilities and expectations.
    • Understand the importance of, and how to enhance image and competency, and how to avoid the associated challenges that may include life wasting, lost opportunities, and society’s own perception.

 

Seven Ways to Cause a Crisis

The song ‘Seven Ways to Cause a Crisis’ highlight what do we do that actually causes a crisis to happen in someone’s life?

What do we (ie: support staff, team, system. support plan) unintentionally do that causes crisis in the people lives that we support? Are we sometimes the cause of the very behaviors or actions that we are complaining about or that we may be wishing to change? Although we do not do this purposefully, we do though sometimes fail to pay attention to some fundamentally important parts of people’s lives. And when those fundamental things are being ignored, it is the perfect opportunity for something to go really wrong. We, as direct support professionals need to be aware of the relationships, homes, safety, support, choice and control of the people we support to help prevent a crisis from occuring.

Three Things

 

This video explores what we can do to better listen to people who are in direct support roles in order to improve the quality of life of both the support professional as well as the person being supported. Direct support professionals often feel isolated and the last to know things, which is ironic, since they are the ones spending the most time with the people they support. So give them opportunities beyond what is required that will help them to learn to do their job more efficiently. Give them opportunities to talk about not only their job, but their life outside their work. Help them to understand their role and value their role as a direct support professional as an invaluable one.